Some applications may output data to a log for a variety of purposes, such as safely performing transactions with minimal latency, error logging, etc. In many cases, this log may take the form of a sequential log.
Sequential logs may exhibit a write-many, read-few input/output pattern, with logging activity beginning at the start of an allocated space and continuing sequentially until the log reaches the end of the allocated space and wraps around to the beginning again. Unfortunately, this format may result in several inefficiencies when the sequential log is maintained on a storage device with a cache front end. For example, the disk space allocated for the log may never get pinned to the cache since the writes to the log may occur sequentially over a large space. This may result in reads fetching data from the disk rather than the cache. Additionally or alternatively, sequential writes to the log may trigger frequent cache flushes, potentially impacting write performance to the log. Furthermore, the storage device may perform various unnecessary cache operations without regard to the context in which the sequential log operates. Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies a need for efficient sequential logging on caching-enabled storage devices.